ما مدى تأثير الكلمة المنطوقة إلكترونيا على قرار شراء هواتف نقالة جديدة لطلبة الجامعة في سلطنة ُعمان ؟

Abstract EN

The study aimed to find out the effect of the electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) on the five stages of the purchasing decision-making process: need recognition, information search, alternatives evaluation, purchase decision-making, and purchase evaluation.

The study used an electronic questionnaire as a main tool for data collection.

The research sample comprised 295 students from three institutions of higher education in Dhofar Governorate (Dhofar University - Technical College in Salalah - College of Applied Sciences in Salalah) in the Sultanate of Oman.

The data were analyzed by the statistical programs SPSS and AMOS, where the study relied on descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and structural modeling equation.

The results showed that the EWOM has a significant role in all five stages with varying levels.

The eWOM has a moderate effect on the stage of collecting information, but a weak effect on the other stages namely: need recognition, alternatives evaluation, decision-taking, and evaluation.

of the purchase decision making model.

Results and recommendations were presented.